Chapter 28

Behind The Spotlight Chapter 28

William's cooperation with the filming lasted only a day. Despite his interest, he understood that his priorities had to shift. Summer was ending, and he now had to focus on his college years. His father was adamant about ensuring that each of his children finished college and earned a degree. There was no way around it. Ellijah Edward believed that as long as one had an education, they had the knowledge to survive in this cruel world.

So, even though his children lived privileged lives and could easily rely on their inheritance, Ellijah still insisted they obtain at least a bachelor's degree. That was the minimum requirement, the foundation. In fact, it was one of the criteria for his children to be eligible to inherit his wealth and properties.

Because of that, William also had to go to college, whether he liked it or not. He wasn't aiming for the Ivy League, he knew his capabilities. He wasn't dumb, but he also wasn't going to get into a university like Harvard. So, he enrolled in a regular university.

"...Acting's not that bad," William muttered while driving his sports car with the top down, letting the wind ruffle his hair. He realized acting was fun. Even though his role was just a background character, he found it interesting... although he had no intention of ever partaking in a strip-tease, or whatever that was. That part was too much for him. After that bizarre experience, William never stepped foot in a strip club again and started behaving like a good person.

William had no clear path in life. He knew he couldn't compete with his older siblings for control of Database Giant. They were too accomplished, too far ahead. Besides, his father was still healthy. There was no looming succession battle.

Perhaps he could try to find a profession in the entertainment industry. A beginning, something of his own. Lila Seraphina might be able to help him.

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Days passed.

Weeks passed.

Months passed.

After four months of constant grinding and filming, The Accidental Wedding Crashers officially wrapped production.

Now, Wyatt was working hard on post-production. His tired eyes, with dark bags beneath them, stared at footage that had to be deleted from the final version of the movie. He hadn't had proper sleep in days, maybe even weeks.

Collin had asked his colleagues for recommendations on affordable editing studios in Los Angeles, and most of them referred him to a place called Reel Deal Editing Studio, known for delivering quality work at half the usual cost.

Their funds were nearly gone, like a candle burning its final inch. Thankfully, Collin had already paid the crew and cast who worked on the project. At least that part was settled.

They filmed over 30 hours of footage! That was far too much. Wyatt's job now was to discard the unusable clips while preserving the best takes. Then trim it down, again and again, until it reached an acceptable form. He had to keep cutting scenes until the footage was down to one and a half to two hours, the standard runtime for a movie.

From 30 hours of footage to 2 hours. God knows how much time Wyatt and his editor spent sorting through bad takes and good ones. Even among the best takes, scenes had to be cut to ensure the plot flowed smoothly and the runtime stayed under two hours.

For this film, Wyatt aimed for a 100-minute runtime, plus 10 minutes of credits.

Thankfully, Wyatt Bray had graduated from film school, so this wasn't new to him. He had the theoretical knowledge, and now, the practical experience. Still, he had to admit post-production was an exhausting process. Sorting and cutting footage was just one part of the job.

He also had to work with the editor to actually edit the film, which was tiring. The production could only afford three people for the editing team, and Wyatt was one of them. They took turns sleeping in the editing room.

He also had to supervise the dubbing of lines. The cast spent a week recording their lines in post-production, and Wyatt was present for most of it. He had to ensure every line hit just right, matching the lip movements and preserving the emotional delivery.

Post-production also included Sound Editing which was adding background music, setting the emotional tone, and building tension and atmosphere. Foley sounds like footsteps, rustling, and door creaks were essential. They had to pay for music licenses, royalty-free options were preferred, of course.

If visual effects were needed, they had to budget both time and money. Even a few seconds of VFX could cost a lot.

These were just some of the things Wyatt had to handle during post-production. He was sleep-deprived for a reason. He worked around the clock. Eat, work, nap, poop. Repeat. For at least a month.

The constant pressure didn't help either. Wyatt understood that if The Accidental Wedding Crashers flopped at the box office, his career as a director could be over. His commitment to his dream was absolute.

To be fair, as long as Wyatt didn't screw up, the movie would make money. There were many ways for a film to earn profit. DVD sales, overseas rights, licensing, limited screenings, he was aware of all the revenue paths. But if the film flopped, his climb to stardom would be severely hindered.

Still, as long as he had investors, Wyatt could keep making movies. Maybe not big-budget ones, but movies nonetheless.

"This scene, replay it."

The monitor played a clip where the groom was talking to Jess and Sam.

"I swear I'm not gay, but femboys make my dick brick up." The groom was drunk, clearly not sober enough to filter his words.

Sam and Jess looked at each other and replied:

"That's gay."

The editor paused and yawned, waiting for Wyatt's verdict.

"Hm, this is the best one. Let's keep it," Wyatt muttered, a tired smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

Their editing continued until Wyatt frowned while watching the scene where Collin and William had a short cameo. Wyatt was thankful to both of them, so he gave them screen time as a token of appreciation... Unfortunately, the scene he chose for their cameo was absolutely diabolical.

Wyatt stared at Collin and sighed.

"He's too handsome," he murmured. Collin was so good-looking that he could easily steal the audience's attention, a distracting kind of beauty.

In this particular scene, the audience's attention needed to be on Grandma. If viewers only stared at Collin and forgot to laugh, the comedy would fall flat.

So Collin's cameo had to be cut from the final version. Wyatt didn't want anything to risk the success of his debut movie. He'd apologize to Collin later. Maybe even buy him a drink.

Wyatt, the editor, and the assistant editor spent nearly all their time in the editing room. The place reeked of energy drinks and despair. Slowly, they molded the raw footage into a film. A jumble of clips transformed into a coherent, watchable story. It might look simple on screen, but filmmaking was tough.

For Wyatt to pursue this career, he needed to be tough. He had to be a perfectionist. There was no room for mediocrity. Because movies needed to be perfect in their own way, or else, people wouldn't even recognize them as movies.

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With that, August 1995 ended, and Wyatt finally completed post-production.

He finalized the cut and the credit roll. He even finished two movie trailers, just to be safe.